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Lewy Body Dementia A Common Brain Disease Explained

12/174 Comments

Lewy Body Dementia

lewy-body-dementiaLewy body dementia, a surprisingly common type of brain disorder that causes changes in the ability to think and move. The two main types—dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinsons’ disease dementia—differ in the earliest signs.

This book is written by Judy Towne who took care of her husband with Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) at home.

Ms Towne offers many hints and tips for caregivers who are caring for a loved one at home, plus many informative facts about Lewy Body Disease as well as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Each of these illnesses have some symptoms in common, especially various forms of dementia.

As I did with my Mom, so does Judy Towne wish she had known the symptoms sooner. I think we all have a tendency to brush off symptoms like losing our balance or forgetting something we did yesterday. Yet, if we recognize these odd moments for what they are: early symptoms, then we may get help sooner when drug treatments may be more apt to have an effect.

Judy Towne’s husband had many of the symptoms that we hear on Alzheimer’s Support everyday. Our loved one suffers from Sleepless nights, stumbling due to poor balance, the necessity of notepads if they intend to hold a thought for longer than a few hours.

As most of us did, she considered the symptoms as a part of aging, until she finally made a medical appointment after the incidents began to effect her husband’s work life.

Judy Towne also explains many symptoms that don’t occur in Alzheimer’s dementia. If you aren’t sure what your loved ones medical condition is, or if you know that they have Lewy Body Dementia— you will thoroughly appreciate this book.

Judy is wonderful at sharing her story and her feelings through this process. This book is easy to read straight through. Each chapter is written to cover a particular characteristic that might be present in someone with Lewy Body Dementia. You can search the Contents Page or Index to find the information you re searching for.

As Judy says: “This book is written to give Caregivers meat and potatoes suggestions to make their jobs easier. Little suggestions that work can have a significant impact to the stress level of both the caregiver and the patient (spouse or loved one.) 

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A Caregiver’s Guide to Lewy Body DementiaTreasures in the Darkness: Extending Early StageThe Gift of Time: Living with my Husband and Lewy Body diseaseParkinson’s Treatment: 10 Secrets to a Happier Life: English EditionBrain Storms: The Race to Unlock Mystery of Parkinson’sDelay the Disease – Functional Fitness and Parkinson’s (DVD)

Filed Under: Common Questions, What are the Signs and Symptoms Tagged With: Book, Help for the Caregiver, information, lewy body dementia, What is Lewy Body Dementia

“While I Still Can!” : Book Review

05/12Leave a Comment

One Man’s Journey Through Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease

Diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s, Rick Phelps’ writes about and his diagnosis in his mid 50’s and the years since “WHILE I STILL CAN” by Rick Phelps

Rare is the chance to experience the nightmare of Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease from the perspective of the patient coping with it everyday.

In this book, Rick Phelps, the founder of “Memory People,” an online Alzheimer’s and memory impairment support and awareness group for people with dementia along with their loved ones and  caregivers, tells it like it is.

Diagnosed at the age of 57 with this fatal disease, Phelps has decided to lift the veil of silence about Alzheimer’s. Rick Phelps with Joseph Leblanc have created an extraordinary read.

Through the pages of While I Still Can, Phelps affords an uncommon glimpse into the horrific world of memory loss, while at the same time telling his story of love, commitment, faith and courage, in the face of a catastrophic illness.

The new book can be purchased at Amazon, including the ebook for KINDLE. This book is a must read for anyone with Early Onset Alzheimer’s or their families, friends and care-givers.

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While I Still Can…

Rick Phelps, diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s, is also an Advocate for others. He’s watched his Facebook page, Memory People, with several hundred readers grow to many thousands.

Caregivers and folks who have Alzheimer’s or other dementias work together. They read, learn and share ways to help themselves and other battle the symptoms of this disease.

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Filed Under: Books Reviewed, Recommended Reading Tagged With: Book, early onset alzheimer's, Joseph LeBlanc, memory people, rick phelps, While I still Can

Can Fiction Mimic True Life? – “Still Alice” :Book Review

09/046 Comments

Can Fiction Mimic True Life? – “Still Alice” :Book Review

I am conflicted about reviewing, or recommending this book despite the fact that it’s one of the best reads about living and coping with Alzheimer’s. I laughed, I cried, I lost sleep thinking about it. Though hubby was demanding dinner–I couldn’t put this book down. That’s what makes a great book…doesn’t it? Problem is–it’s fiction.

“Normally, when I recommend books for Alzheimer’s reading, I’m thinking technical, authoritarian, instruction on handling the unruly Alzheimer’s patient. Most who are looking for a book about Alzheimer’s are looking for HELP.

I read many true-life (instruction books) about dementia when my mom was diagnosed and I was totally unfamiliar with this disease. I wanted HELP!

still-aliceTruthfully, the entire time I was reading “Still Alice” I never gave a thought to the fact that it was fiction. It was true to life for me and mimicked my own experiences with my mother.

Another surprise was that the book is written from Alice’s perspective.  How can this work? I mused only a second before I  continued reading more and more and more.  I never knew what my mother was thinking as she struggled to remember the strange woman who stared back at her from the bathroom mirror, I thought.

Yet– I saw my mother in Alice, I heard my mother in Alice, for just a little while my mother was Alice and I could pretend that Mom had had a better understanding of her plight after diagnosis with this disease just as Alice did.

Of course, my mother wasn’t Alice and her diagnosis came when she was eighty years old, too late for her to have any real understanding of what that diagnosis meant or what she would endure because of it–

Alice, on the other hand, is a young 50 year old, accomplished psychology professor,  with a successful husband and grown children. She’s achieved it all and remains a young, vibrant woman. She is not the person we expect to see when we think of Alzheimer’s or Dementia.  Yet that’s the diagnosis Alice received as do many others with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (EOAD.)

And because of the outstanding writing by Lisa Genova, we become entwined in Alice’s heartbreaking journey. From the early days of forgetting a single word, or name, or street until she is totally disoriented on a familiar jogging path. Of course, Alice tries to reason it away; menopause, stress, as anyone would do. She’s too young for Alzheimer’s, we think and so does she.

Fiction though it may be, everything about Alice and her family and her diagnosis “feels” real. Hearing and seeing through Alice’s senses makes it more powerful. It’s poignant to watch what happens to the family, her husband, John, and their children, Anna, Tom, Lydia. Alzheimer’s in a loved one changes everyone in the family. We all cope differently as does Alice’s family.

Much will be familiar to you in Alice’s story if you also have a loved one with Alzheimer’s. I saw my Mom’s fears and anxieties about crowds and loud noises and understood them better after reading Alice’s “point of view.”  I saw the same heartbreak and devastation our family felt at the diagnosis and the same resolve we found to learn as much as we could and cope the best we knew how, just as Alice’s family did.

Author: Lisa Genova, a first-time novelist, holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer’s Association. She lives with her family in Massachusetts.

The only regret I had about reading “Still Alice” is that it hadn’t been available all those years ago when I was searching for ways to help my own mother.

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Filed Under: Books Reviewed, Recommended Reading Tagged With: Book, Can Fiction Mimic True Life, fiction, still alice

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